HYDROPONICS

What is hydroponics?
Hydroponics is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water, without soil.

How is it possible for a plant to get all of its nutrients without soil?
There is a solution of minerals dissolved in the water, making soil unnecessary.

What sorts of plants can be grown most successfully with hydroponics?
Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, strawberries, and other small fruits.

Is hydroponics a way to grow plants in outer space?
Depends. It could work, considering that it would be a controlled environment, and clean, too. But there would have to be some sort of anti-space float technology to keep the water in place, and not every where at once.

Is it possible to grow plants commercially using hydroponics?
Yes, in fact it is already being done, especially in situations where an environment needs to be controlled.

What is the history of hydroponics?
First appeared in Sylva Sylvarum, a book by Francis Bacon. In 1699, John Woodward published his water culture experiments with spearmint. 1842, a list of nine elements BELIEVED to be essential to plant growth were complied, leading to the development of soil-less cultivation. In 1929 the term aquaculture was coined by Willian Frederick Gericke.

Environmental Issues

Hydroponics, while putting less stress on the natural ecosystem by creating its own, still affects the environment because of its use of water. Hydroponics uses a ridiculous amount of water that will never be cycled back into the ecosystem, which is a good and bad thing. For one thing, hydroponics use little to no fertilizer or pesticides, since it is in such a sterile environment, but that also means that the water used will never cycle, which can lead to a suffering ecosystem outside of the realms of the faculty. While this means that pollution is less when concerning pesticides and the like, it also means that the balance of the water cycle is ever so slightly tilted- which is always a bad thing.

Economic Issues

In the short run, hydroponics is expensive, because of the extensive instruments needed to properly use it. However, once started, it slowly earns its keep through cheaper production of plants due to the near impossible chance of blight or grand death of plants. Like a greenhouse, these plants can be grown in all seasons, which in turn lowers the price of vegetables/fruits year round, and changes the agriculture market completely. So, while really costly, hydroponics can make up for it in the long run with its reliability and sterile nature.

Ethical Issues

What ethical issues? Hydroponics isn't run on the tears of rainbow dolphins, so using it works rather well. Land that would be used instead for farming or irrigation could be restored to forests and the like since there would be no other use for it. Places like Japan with very little land could harness this farming style and grow much more than what they used to, since the lack of space troubles such facilities very little. The only issue is the plants themselves, since certain things, like fruit trees, can't be grown, but that's less of an ethical issue. While it's true that using hydroponics as a solid source of food would eliminate much of the farms, it makes up for that idea with its safe, control ways that eliminate such things like ecoli and friends.

There is... one problem, however. When concerning the environmental changes constantly underway outside of hydroponic buildings, the plants that are grown within may become genetically fragile. Without the outside influence of blights, pests, and other troubles, plants may halt in concern to evolution, and stay at one stage, making it impossible to grow outside of such labs should those labs become unavailable. In other words, growing plants in hydroponic environments could very well make them wussies, unable to grow outside in the "real world." Huh.

Making your Choice

Hydroponics is really the better way to go. It doesn't have the outside influences which plague ground-born relatives, and can help the environment more than it hurts. There are some set backs, but not enough to dismiss the concept completely.